Today in History: June 17, O.J. Simpson charged with murder following highway chase
Today in history:
On June 17, 1994, after leading police on a slow-speed chase on Southern California freeways, O.J. Simpson was arrested and charged with murder in the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. (Simpson was acquitted of the murders in a criminal trial in 1995, but held liable in a civil trial in 1997.)
Also on this date:
In 1775, the Revolutionary War Battle of Bunker Hill resulted in a costly victory for the British, who suffered heavy losses.
In 1885, the Statue of Liberty, disassembled and packed into 214 separate crates, arrived in New York Harbor aboard the French frigate Isère.
In 1930, President Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which boosted U.S. tariffs to historically high levels, prompting foreign retaliation.
In 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Abington (Pa.) School District v. Schempp, struck down, 8-1, rules requiring the recitation of the Lord's Prayer or reading of biblical verses in public schools.
In 1972, President Richard Nixon's eventual downfall began with the arrest of five burglars inside the Democratic headquarters in Washington, D.C.'s, Watergate complex.
In 2008, hundreds of same-sex couples got married across California on the first full day that same-sex marriage became legal by order of the state's highest court; an estimated 11,000 same-sex couples would be married under the California law in its first three months.
In 2015, nine Black worshippers were killed when a gunman opened fire during a bible study gathering at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. (Dylann Roof, a white supremacist, was captured the following day; he would be convicted on state and federal murder and hate crime charges and sentenced to death.)
In 2021, the Supreme Court, in a 7-2 ruling, left intact the entire Affordable Care Act, rejecting a major Republican-led effort to kill the national health care law known informally as 'Obamacare.'
In 2021, President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law, creating the first new national holiday since the establishment of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
8 minutes ago
- Yahoo
'Unhinged': Democrats are furious Sen. Alex Padilla was hauled out of Noem briefing
WASHINGTON – The fury radiating off of Congressional Democrats is palpable. Hours after Alex Padilla, the senior U.S. senator in California, was forcibly removed from a press briefing with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, House Democrats roamed the Capitol seeking an audience with GOP leadership. Meanwhile, their Senate counterparts gave floor speech after floor speech, condemning the action as an "abuse of power" and "assault." House Speaker Mike Johnson called Padilla's actions "wildly inappropriate" and alleged he rushed at the secretary. House Democrats shouted over him, saying "that's a lie!" Padilla interrupted a press briefing Noem held in Los Angeles on June 12, amid days of protests against President Donald Trump's immigration raids in the city. Some of those protests have turned violent, with demonstrators burning cars and hurling objects at law enforcement. Trump sent in National Guard troops without Gov. Gavin Newsom's consent, spurring additional outrage from Democrats. 'We are not going away. We are staying here to liberate this city from the socialist and the burdensome leadership that this governor and mayor have placed on this country,' Noem said as Padilla started asking: 'Madam Secretary I want to know why you insist on –' before he was grabbed and hauled out of the room by security guards. Padilla was pushed to the ground and handcuffed outside the room. "Anybody that looks at that video will understand that this amounts to an assault, a felony," said Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-New York, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. "The White House is unhinged and out of control." Espaillat and more than a dozen other Democratic lawmakers attempted to enter Thune's office, who was meeting with the White House, and were turned away from Johnson's office. "They said he was busy, that he couldn't come out to meet with dozens of members of the U.S. House of Representatives, hiding behind the doors there," said Rep. Nanette Barragán, D-California. "It's a disgrace." On the other side of the Capitol, a string of Democratic senators delivered floor speeches hammering the indignity of the episode. 'I saw this happen to my colleague, and I am shocked by how far we have descended in the first 140 days of this administration . . . What is the becoming of our democracy? Are there no limits to what this administration will do?' said New Jersey Democrat Sen. Andy Kim on the Senate floor. Washington Sen. Patty Murray said on the Senate floor she 'cannot believe' lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are not calling the situation 'outrageous.' Republicans largely defended the actions taken by federal law enforcement agents. 'What were they supposed to do? They have to restrain someone who is engaged in that kind of behavior . . . A sitting member of Congress should not act like that,' House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters at the Capitol. 'It is beneath a member of Congress. It is beneath a senator. They're supposed to lead by example, and that is not a good example." White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said Padilla 'embarrassed himself and his constituents with this immature, theater-kid stunt.' 'It's telling that Democrats are more riled up about Padilla than they are about the violent riots and assaults on law enforcement in LA,' she added. Trump dispatched 4,000 members of the National Guard and 700 Marines to Los Angeles to quell the protests. Padilla said in a press conference after the incident that he wanted more information from Noem on the Trump administration's "increasingly extreme immigration enforcement actions." Noem met with Padilla for 15 minutes afterward, according to the Department of Homeland Security. He added he was not arrested or detained. But, he said, "if this is how the Department of Homeland Security responds to a senator with a question, you can only imagine what they're doing to farm workers, to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout California and throughout the country. We will hold this administration accountable.' Tricia McLaughlin, spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, wrote on X that Padilla was 'told repeatedly to back away and did not comply with officers' repeated commands.' Contributing: Joey Garrison and Deborah Berry, USA TODAY This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Unhinged': Democrats furious Padilla hauled out of Noem briefing
News24
29 minutes ago
- News24
US moving fighter jets to Middle East as Israel-Iran war rages
US adds fighter jets to Middle East as Israel-Iran war intensifies. Deployments, including F-16s and F-35s, are defensive to counter drones and missiles. 40 000 US troops and systems are already stationed amid rising regional tensions. The US military is deploying more fighter aircraft to the Middle East and extending the deployment of other warplanes, bolstering US military forces in the region as the war between Israel and Iran rages, three US officials said. One of the officials said the deployments include F-16, F-22 and F-35 fighter aircraft. Two of the officials stressed the defensive nature of the deployment of fighter aircraft, which have been used to shoot down drones and projectiles. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reuters was first to report on Monday the movement of a large number of tanker aircraft to Europe and the deployment of an aircraft carrier to the Middle East, providing options to President Donald Trump as Middle East tensions soar. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth described the deployments as defensive in nature as Washington looks to safeguard forces in the Middle East from potential blowback from Iran and Iran-aligned forces in the region. On Tuesday, a fourth US defence official raised the possibility of the deployment to the Eastern Mediterranean of additional US Navy warships capable of shooting down ballistic missiles. The United States already has a sizeable force in the Middle East, with nearly 40 000 troops in the region, including air defence systems, fighter aircraft and warships that can detect and shoot down enemy missiles. Israel launched its air war, its largest ever on Iran, on Friday after saying it concluded Iran was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons and has pointed to its right to nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, including enrichment, as a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
New York Times
34 minutes ago
- New York Times
Supreme Court Justices Disclose International Travel, Book Deals
Trips to lecture in Europe, Latin America and Hawaii. Millions of dollars in book deals. Income from teaching at prestigious law schools. Supreme Court justices offered a window into some of the perks of being part of the nation's highest court in their annual financial disclosures, which were released on Tuesday and covered the justices' activities last year. Under a federal law passed after the Watergate scandal in the 1970s, the justices must disclose gifts, travel and outside income. There has been increased scrutiny of the disclosures in recent years, particularly after revelations that Justice Clarence Thomas had failed to disclose years of lavish gifts and travel from wealthy friends, including the Texas billionaire Harlan Crow. Justice Thomas has said he did not believe that he was required to disclose the gifts. In his latest report, Justice Thomas listed no gifts or private jet travel. In an addendum, however, he wrote that he had 'inadvertently omitted' a life insurance policy from prior reports. The policy, he noted, was purchased in July 2001 and terminated last month. Justice Thomas indicated that the policy covered someone other than himself, and added that 'confusion arose on whether the policy needed to be disclosed.' He did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The forms are only a few pages and provide limited details. But they often give colorful examples of the justices' lives off the bench. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
